Precious
by Hikari Sword
Summary: *OC focused* There's a new student transferring into Tokiwadai, but at the same time there's a powerful magnetic Esper that's been wrecking havoc around the city. However, it seems that the Mental Out has some scheme in the works, while the Imagine Breaker has gone missing for days. On top of all this, the Railgun has been acting strange. Now, something precious has been lost.
1. The New Girl

**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'A Certain Magical Index' or its characters.

**Author:** While this story's plot doesn't center around the OC's, the focus of the story will be on them. One of the OCs will be introduced here, while the other already had one called "A Certain Frozen Flower." If you're not interested in reading that, the basic jist is (SPOILERS), this OC is an Ice type Esper with a split personality.

The OC introduced here though, is more designed to be... 'cute', let's just say.

About the fic itself. I'm having some difficulty with one of the canon characters. Those cheerful yet manipulative types are surprisingly difficulty to get the balance right.

* * *

"So this is all her stuff?" Lilian puts a box down into her dorm room. "Phew."

"Yes," says a fellow student that was also carrying boxes.

"It's nice to finally have a roommate," Lilian mentions. "But it'd be better if I actually got to meet her."

"I heard that her flight was delayed because of a storm. There's also that double meteor two weeks ago."

"Don't remind me."

"And she has to get through some other security checks. But she'll be here by the time class starts."

"So she's a foreigner?"

"Yep, that's why you were picked to be her roommate. You were a foreigner too, you'll be able to help her settle in. See you in class Sterling." The fellow student leaves the room.

(I wonder how strong she is.)

"If she's coming into Tokiwadai, she's at least a level 3."

(I'm hoping she's a level 4.)

"Oh come on."

(What?)

"Is there anything else you want out of our roommate other than to have her be strong?"

(... I wonder how gullible and naive she'll be.)

"What? Why do want that? Besides this is Tokiwadai, she'll be smart."

(Doesn't mean she won't be gullible and naive.)

"Isolde!"

(Alright alright. But it'll be much easier to keep our secret if she was.)

"I guess you're right," Lilian looks over the boxes in her dorm room. "I just hope she's friendly."

(We'll be meeting her today anyway so let's just put our expectations aside for now.)

XXX

* * *

The class was especially rowdy today, there was a lot of discussion about the new transfer student. Though there was also topics on the thief that's been on a crime spree the past couple days. They called him, The Magneto.

"Hey, have you heard? The Magneto struck again!"

"Really? 3rd day in a row, what was hit this time?"

"Do you remember that one store with the rumour that 3 level 5s walked in on the night of the double meteors?"

"That place?"

"And the places around it."

"How come Judgement or Anti-Skill hasn't captured him yet?"

"He quickly steals then runs, there's no telling where he might show up. I heard that a few Espers tried fighting him, but they were beaten pretty badly."

"He uses magnetism right? I bet Miss Misaka could take him."

"Oh of course she can! He just gets away too fast for them to react."

"I heard he has a curly mustache."

"Settle down class," Lilian's teacher informs everyone in the room. All of the students rush over to their seats. It takes a few more seconds for the whole class to calm down. "Much better. As you no doubt have heard, we have a new transfer student. You can come in now."

The door opens from the other side. A girl in a Tokiwadai uniform walks through, turns around, closes the door, then walks to the front of the room and bows.

She had short deep blue hair, with a short but large and puffy ponytail, all reaching down to just above her shoulders. Some hair at the top of her head was shaped to have cat ears, complete with white puffy hair pieces. She had a very petite figure, but a cute face with what seems to be a very slight blush and golden yellow eyes.

"H-hello everyone," She begins nervously. "M-my name is K-Katherine Rutile Sopheria. Uh, ummm... N, nice to meet everyone, really.

There are probably a lot of things that I'll have to get used to, and I'll probably be a hassle for everyone, so, I'm sorry!"

"Don't be sorry," the teacher reassures her. "I'm certain that you'll get along with everyone just fine. Isn't that right class?"

The class cheered. The transfer student reeled back in surprise then blushed and scratched her head.

The teacher motioned her hands to lower the noise. "Alright everyone, I'm sure you all want to get to know her a bit more, but you're going to have to wait. Miss Sopherica-"

"It's 'Sopheria' teacher," one of the students corrected, the class giggled.

"Sorry about that," the teacher apologizes. "Miss Sopheria, you can sit right over there, next to your roommate, Miss Sterling."

Lilian waves her arm up to help the transfer student. Sopheria walks towards Lilian.

"N-nice to meet you," The new student bows respectfully. "I hope we can get along, really."

"Same here, Miss Sopheria." Lilian smiles warmly.

"P-please, we're roommates right? Call me Rutile, really," Rutile sits down and class begins.

XXX

* * *

At the lunch break, most of the class gathered around Rutile's desk. She was being bombarded by questions.

"Miss Sopheria, where do you come from?"

"I was born in Transylvania, really."

"You're Transylvanian?"

"Romanian by birth. My father is French, my mother is Romanian, really."

"Do you have a favorite food?"

"Um... most fish? I think sardines are my favorite, it is."

"Have you tried Takoyaki?"

"N-no, they're made of octopus right? I'm not sure I'd want to, really."

"Oh you have to try them! They're so good!"

"I-I guess..."

"Do you have any hobbies?"

"W-well, I like going out for walks. And I was taught a martial art from when I was young, you know."

"You were taught a martial art, from Europe?"

"Y-yeah, it's supposedly been in my mother's side of the family for a long time. My aunt was the one that taught me it, really."

"Say, what's up with the cat ears?"

"Oh these? M-my mother really, really likes cats. Um... I-is there something wrong with it, huh?"

"No no, it's just sooo cute!"

"What's that chain around your neck?"

Sopheria pulls out a moon and star pendant from beneath her uniform. The crescent moon was made of crystal sapphire, while the star appeared to be made of topaz

"It's this. This is a pendant from my mother's family, I think it dates all the way back to the time of Count Vlad Tepes III, really."

"EH...?"

"I think my mother's family were very high ranking nobles way back then. But that's all I really know about it, really." Sopheria puts the pendant back underneath her uniform.

Lilian watches from her seat at the crowd right next to her.

(You're not going to talk to her?)

"Later, I'll have all the time afterwards."

(She's got a rather... interesting habit when she talks.)

"You don't think it's annoying do you?"

(It's starting to be...)

"Sorry, but you're going to have to endure it, besides I like it."

(At least I can plug my ears up with ice.)

"Oh, she wear shorts," One student gets up from the floor in front of the desk.

"H-hey!" Rutile stands up startled and flustered. "W-what do you think you're doing?"

"I just wanted to see what kind you have on, but your black biker shorts is in the way. Why do you wear them?"

"I-I just told you that I do martial arts," Rutile calms herself down. "I-it became a habit of mine to wear them under any skirt, really."

"Hey, hey! What's your power?"

"I-it's-"

The teacher claps her hands loudly, "Alright, alright, that's enough class."

XXX

* * *

The class finished for the day.

"Class dismissed," the teacher announces. "Miss Sterling, Miss Sopherica-"

"It's Sopheria," one of the students corrected, the class giggles again.

"Miss Sopheria," the teacher corrected herself. "Would you two please stay in class for a few moments?"

The whole class leaves except for the teacher, Lilian and Rutile.

"Miss Sterling, you're not doing anything after class right? No clubs or anything?"

"No, I'm not in any afterschool clubs."

"Then would you mind giving Miss Sopheria a tour of the grounds? The school, the dorms and the garden."

"I was planning to, I just couldn't think of a way to get her away from the crowd."

"Well, now you're free. About half of them will have afterschool activities. And we've got large windows."

"T-teacher?"

"I-is she telling us to jump out the window, really?"

"Also, Miss Sopheri-... a... "

"Y-yes?"

"If you can, try and keep your power and abilities a secret, okay?" the teacher winks.

"W-why?"

"I want to see how smart these girls are. Let's see if they can figure out what your power is."

"O-okay..."

"Go. And if you have time, try to get her used to the city as well."

"I hope you know how to land," Lilian jokes as she opens the window. It's a three story drop.

"A-are you serious? W-we're really jumping out the window, really?"

"Hup!" Lilian jumps through the window.

"H-hey!" Rutile jumps right after her. The new student landed on the ground first with a small wave of wind blowing out from her feet. "Miss Sterling?" She looks around, she couldn't find Lilian on the ground around her.

"Up here! Give me a minute!"

Rutile looks up at the wall and sees Lilian climbing down, freezing her hands and feet to the wall as she does so. When Lilian reaches a comfortable height, she breaks away from the wall and lands right next to Rutile.

"You have ice powers, really?"

"Mist actually," Lilian corrects as she holds out a hand while mist floats up from it. "But I can freeze it into ice." The mist around her hand freezes instantly into an icicle. "See?"

"That's so cool, really!" Rutile exclaims excitedly.

"Not as cool as you landing that jump," Lilian looks up at the window they jumped out of. "A normal person would've gotten really hurt. Well, let's go."

"Y-you're... not going to ask about my power, really?"

"The teacher told you to keep it a secret, right?" Lilian smiles. "Besides, I think it'd be kind of fun to try and figure out what it is."

"O-okay Miss Sterling."

"Oh, that's right. I never properly introduced myself did I?" Lilian bows. "My full name is Lilian Isolde Sterling. You can call me Lilian."

XXX

* * *

"We're close to the edge of the grounds here-"

"What do you mean you don't know?!" there was some high pitched screaming nearby. "He hasn't been home for days! He's not at the hospital! I even called England and they don't even know!"

Lilian and Rutile turn to see a another Tokiwadai student talking to a short white clad nun.

"That's..." Lilian walks toward the two.

"-elling you that I don't know where he is. How did you get in here anyway? What the hell is security doing?"

"Hey don't ignore me! You're the only one left I know that could know where he is!"

"Look, I don't know anything about where he is. You know how he tends to get into trouble."

"That's true... Wait. You're acting weird."

"H-huh? W-what are you talking about?"

"You're hiding something! You don't sound worried at all! What do you know?!"

"I-I'm telling you I don't know anything! Tell you what, if I do find him. I'll bite his head for you."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Miss Misaka?" Lilian walks in on their conversation.

The Tokiwadai student and the nun turn to see Lilian and Rutile.

"Sterling?"Misaka notices Lilian.

"What's going on?" Lilian asks bluntly.

"I-it's nothing..." Mikoto nervously answers.

"What do you mean nothing?!" the nun screams. "Touma's gone missing, and you don't look like you care!"

"I-I do care!" Mikoto yells back. "But more than likely it's just that idiot being himself. You know how he is. He'll probably just come back with another strange girl hanging around him."

"Hmm..." the nun quieted up.

"Touma?" Lilian asks in surprise. "As in, Touma Kamijou?"

"H-huh?" Mikoto turn to Lilian, startled. "Oh, yeah. It's him. You're not the only girl he saved. I swear, every other week he-"

"You were saved by Touma too?" the nun moves to Lilian.

"Y-yes..."

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Mikoto yells

"Hmm..." Index leans in and walks around Lilian.

"W-what?" Lilian is getting nervous.

"You're the one that gave Touma that flower of ice that one time aren't you?"

"H-huh? Y-yeah, I did. B-but how did you know that?"

"That ice was made of some strange mana. I'd never forget it, the closest descriptions my grimoires have are in books on Atlantis and the Leviathan. But you're human, right? So why...?"

"W-what are you talking about?"

"Hey," Mikoto cuts in and pushes the nun away. "Just get out of here now before we get into any trouble."

"B-but..."

"He'll be back, he always comes back. If not," Mikoto sparks up. "I'll kill him myself."

"H-how does that make any sense...?" Lilian nervously asks under her breath.

"Alright, but save me something to bite." The nun walks away.

"Phew," Mikoto calms down. "I'm sorry about all that fuss."

"It's okay," Lilian reassures. "We were just passing by."

"We?" Mikoto finally notices Rutile hiding behind Lilian. "Oh? Who's your friend?"

"She's a transfer student," Lilian steps aside so that the two girls can see each other. "Miss Misaka, this is Miss Katherine Rutile Sopheria."

"N-nice to meet you," Rutile bows nervously. "M-my name's Katherine Rutile Sopheria, really."

"And I'm Mikoto Misaka," Mikoto bows back. "Wow, she's... modest."

"Did you just glance at her chest?" Lilian asks.

"W-what? N-no!" Mikoto gets all defensive. "A-anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I'm giving Miss Sopheria a tour of the school grounds," Lilian answers. "Do you want to join us?"

"I'd love to, but..." Mikoto scratches her neck nervously. "I'm kind of busy."

"Ah, well, maybe we can all hang out some other time then."

"Y-yeah..." Mikoto smiles nervously.

"Oh!" Lilian just got an idea. "How about you show off your famous pose?"

"Famous pose? What famous pose?"

"Ah, darn!" Lilian feels her pockets. "I don't have a coin. Oh, there we go!" The ice girl picks up a rock from the ground. "It was like this right?" Lilian stood with one foot back and her arm stretched forward. Her hand looked ready to flick the rock.

"Oh that," Mikoto puts her fingers to her chin. She then starts repositioning several of Lilian's limbs. "You need to put your foot back a bit more, and make your whole body line up straight at where you're pointing. Your arm needs to be a bit higher and straighter so that you can actually aim. The hand needs to be tilted forward some more so that you fire as straight as you can."

"M-mind giving us a demonstration? Ahehehe..." Lilian nervously suggests as her limbs start to feel stiff."

"Sure thing," Mikoto pulls out a coin. She flicks it up and gets into position. The coin lands on her thumb but she holds it there via magnetism. "This is it."

A light, misty breeze blows Mikoto for a couple seconds as she holds the pose. She looked like an action hero.

"You can stop with the wind now," Mikoto drops the pose and stands normally again. "Don't forget that it's really cold."

"S-sorry," Lilian apologizes.

"S-so Miss Misaka's ability is to fire coins?" Rutile asks.

"Yep, especially at stores carrying Gekotas."

"Hey!" Mikoto flicks the coin into Lilian's ice armor, it freezes and breaks off. "Huh?" Mikoto notices Rutile hiding behind Lilian again. "Miss Sopheria? Is there something wrong?"

"I-I feel all tingly, really."

"Tingly?" Mikoto tilts her head, confused.

"W-wait," Lilian steps back. "D-don't tell me, a-are you...?"

"H-huh?" Rutile is puzzled.

"Oh great," Mikoto face palms. "Not another one."

"What? NO!" Rutile jumps out. "I-I'm not like that, really!"

"Easy, easy," Mikoto smiles. "We were just kidding. But why are you hiding?"

"Yeah, she doesn't really bite," Lilian tells her. "That hard."

"Hey!" Mikoto playfully tries to slap Lilian.

"It's all this electricity in the air, really."

"You can feel that?" Mikoto asks curiously. "Are you sensitive to electricity?"

"Y-yes... are you an electric Esper?"

"She really is new here," Mikoto comments to Lilian. "How much do you know about Academy City and Tokiwadai?"

"Not much... I only found out that I was transferring here just a few days ago, really."

"Only a few days?" Lilian looks at Rutile. "It takes about a week to get all the papers and such to get done just to get into the city, even longer to get into Tokiwadai."

"I-it was my father's idea, he didn't even consult me about it, really."

"Why?"

"I lost control over my power once..."

"Oh," Lilian recalls her reason to move into Academy City. "Yeah, I can relate. I kept accidentally freezing people around me."

Mikoto and Rutile step back.

"Not completely freeze them! Like, a hand or a leg randomly. Usually when I'm startled. I've got it all under control now though. What did you do?"

"I-I... wrecked a car, really."

"A car? How?"

"I sent it flying 10000 feet up and 20 miles away. Luckily, it landed in a lake, so nobody got hurt, really."

"That is dangerous," Mikoto tells her.

"How did that happen?"

"I was out for a walk when a dog started chasing me, really."

"It's the ears," Mikoto cut in, Lilian giggled slightly.

"I wanted to get away as fast as I could. But I lost control of myself and my body hit the car. Then the car just flew away..."

"Wow, that's nuts." Mitoko comments. "To send a car flying like that. What's your power?"

"I-it's-"

"Our teacher asked her to keep it a secret for a long as she can," Lilian interrupts. "She wanted to see if any of our classmates can figure it out."

"And you're playing along?"

"Of course, it's kind of fun. So far I know that she can land perfectly from very high jumps and that she can send something as large as a vehicle flying."

"Cool," Mikoto smiles. "Tell me once you've figured it out, see you later!"

"Bye!" Lilian waves.

XXX

* * *

"Hmm... they're perfect..." a certain blonde muttered amongst a decent sized group of girls.

"Is something the matter my Queen? Oh, it's Miss Sterling."

"The one from the exhibition match some time ago? Yeah, she's gotten famous since then."

"Even though she doesn't want it."

"Strangely, she hasn't joined any faction or club."

"Should we try to get her to join ours?"

"I don't think she will, she seems exceptionally friendly to the Railgun."

"You're all too noisy," A button on a remote is pressed, and everyone around became quiet. "Now, how shall I approach Lilian and Isolde?"

* * *

**Author:** Gotta love set-up chapters and all the plot points they explicitly point out to you. For instance; The Magneto, who is he and why is he doing what he's doing? The missing Touma, what happened to him and where is he now? The Queen of Tokiwadai, just what is she up to? The answers will soon come.

As for Rutile herself, she basically a big mix of three 'cat' girls. Her name, appearance and mannerisms are based on one, the speech habit of her is based off of another (though the localizations have it as '-it is', '-really', '-okay' and'-huh', I use '-really' sine that seems to fit the best with most of her lines.) And finally her powers also come from a 'cat' girl, and it is the power to


	2. Magnetic Force

"And this is our room," Lilian walks into the dorm room with Rutile. "I think that just about covers half the grounds."

"Only half, really?" Rutile eyes widen.

"Yeah, this place is huge," Lilian tells her. "It took me a while to get used to."

"That's amazing, it is."

"We should unpack your things whenever we have the time," Lilian looks at the boxes inside the room.

"Why don't we do it now, really?"

"No, there's no rush. It'd be better to get you used to your new surroundings first."

"O-okay."

"Hey, do you want to go out into the city? I showed you all the most important stuff. A change of scenery would be nice. We can continue the tour here some other time."

"It sounds like fun, really!"

"Alright! Just give me a moment." Lilian walks into their room's washroom. "Hey, Isolde... Isolde?"

(Huh? Oh, sorry.)

"This is the longest you've been quiet in like, ever. What's up?"

(It's something that little nun said.)

"About Miss Misaka acting weird?"

(Huh? Oh yeah, she said that too, didn't she?)

"That's the only thing that comes to mind. Miss Misaka said that the thing about Kamijou being missing is a regular occurrence. And she didn't seem affected by the news."

(That's exactly why she's weird. Common occurrence or not, she should still be worried.)

"I guess you're right, but what can we do?"

(Nothing but take her word for it unfortunately. One other thing that bugged me is how she seemed a little, tired.)

"She said she was busy. May be she's helping Judgment again, like trying to capture that Magneto thief."

(May be...) _Well, I managed to avoid a dangerous topic of discussion. Just who was that nun anyway?_

"We'd better get moving, Rutile is waiting."

(Have fun.)

XXX

* * *

"Wow!" Rutile walks around in awe of the inside of a tall mall. She can see all the way up to the clouds through the empty center and glass ceiling. "This place is so huge, really!"

"This isn't even the biggest building around here, it's not even that tall," Lilian informs her. "Did you grow up in a small town?"

"Not exactly small, just nothing this big, really."

"Well, is there anything that interests you?"

"Food!" Rutile points to the food court.

"What? Oh, we have been walking around for a long time, I'm kind of hungry myself. Yeah, let's go eat."

Lilian and Rutile walk into the food court, Rutile was checking out several of the menus while Lilian quickly ordered a small meal and found a table. Rutile sat across from her, with a plate that had fish and rice omelette on it.

"You really do like fish don't you?" Lilian smiles.

"Yep, really!"

"Do you have a second favorite food?"

Rutile points to the rice omelette.

Both Rutile and Lilian eat their respective dishes.

"Oh yeah, you never tried takoyaki before right? I'll treat you to some, just wait here."

Rutile finishes nibbling on a fish bone. Lilian quickly returns holding a small plate with some takoyaki. Rutile picks one up and puts it in her mouth.

"Hmm!" Rutile's face perked up.

"You like it?"

"Mmhmm!" Rutile nods.

"Hahaha..." Lilian giggles to herself for a little bit. She joins her friend in eating the Takoyaki.

XXX

* * *

"What do you think?" Lilian holds up a dress in front of herself.

"It goes against your hair, really."

"Oh really?"

(Yeah, really.)

"Darn..." Lilian puts the dress back.

They both walk out of the store, it was located about halfway up the mall.

"So, where to next?"

A loud fire alarm rings through the entire mall.

"A fire?"

Sprinklers start spraying all over the mall. Rutile raises her hands above her head, but there was an umbrella of ice above her.

"You alright?" Lilian asks, holding the ice umbrella.

"Yeah, thank you, really!" Rutile and Lilian stay close together as everyone else panics.

"Let's get out-"

Both girls are shoved aside by some panicking people. They both fall to the ground and the ice umbrella shatters.

"Watch it!" Lilian yells. "You okay Rutile?"

"I'm fine, really," Rutile gets up, all soaked.

"Come on," Lilian leads Rutile through the mall and the crowds. They followed everyone down two floors of stairs. "We're almost there. Rutile?" Lilian turns back to see Rutile padding her chest and looking around herself. "Rutile?"

"My pendant..."

"What? It fell off?"

"I... I have to go back!" Rutile runs back up the stairs.

"Rutile!" Lilian chases after her. She runs up the stairs to the 3rd floor. She sees Rutile heading towards the place where they were knocked down.

Rutile checks the water filled floor, searching the area carefully.

Lilian looks around as well. "We need to hurry."

"I know, I know," Rutile panics. "But that pendant was my mother's, it's special to me, really it is."

The glass ceiling shatters.

"What the heck?!" Lilian looks up, the glass was falling down the center of the mall.

She blinks and her eyes change color from blue to red. The ice girl pulls herself and Rutile into a store as large pieces of glass fall down. They slip on the floor and crash the ground.

(Isolde?)

"Sorry about that," Isolde apologizes as she gets up. The fire sprinklers stopped spraying water.

"What happened?" Rutile asks.

"The glass roof broke," Isolde answers. "But it's too soon for the water to stop. Someone stopped them. Stay here."

"Lilian?"

Isolde slowly looks out of the store. There was a purple figure with cape floating down the center of the mall, with a big floating steel case. The figure wore a dome helmet covering most of his head, but his face could not be seen. Cash registers were flying towards the figure from the various stores, flipped upside down over the steel case and opened up. Their insides, all cash, rained down into the large steel case.

(Is that...?)

"The Magneto," Isolde finishes Lilian's line of thought. "But I can't see his face. Where's his curly mustache at?"

(What do we do?)

"My mother's pendant!" Rutile's voice catches Isolde's ear.

Rutile ran past Isolde outside of the store, Isolde catches a glitter on the floor, it was the pendant. The store's cash register flies into Isolde's automatic ice armor. The impact was strong enough to knock her down but the register just flew up. Isolde gets up fast enough to see Rutile reach for her pendant, only for it to fly away.

"No!" Rutile jumps for it, she misses. She hops on the railings and super jumps after the fast flying pendant. "Wait!"

Her voice caught the attention of Magneto. He turns to see her flying up at him. He silently rips out a railing, wraps it around Rutile, then tosses the girl aside, pinning her to a wall.

"Rutile!" Isolde yells out, catching Magneto's attention.

The magnetic thief launches empty registers in her direction. Isolde erects a thick ice wall in front of her. The registers crash into it, only cracking the ice before they drop like rocks. Isolde sees Magneto pull out a large refrigerator containing drinks.

"Oh hell," Isolde readies herself.

Magneto throws the refrigerator at the wall of ice. Isolde dives to the side, hitting the ground. The ice girl gets up and fires icicles at Magneto. The thief blocks her shots with another large refrigerator.

Isolde stops firing and gathers large amounts of mist above her. It forms into a large, hollow icicle full of mist. Magneto moves the refrigerator slightly to see her forming the icicle. Isolde shoots the giant icicle at Magneto.

Magneto floats to the side and lets the icicle slam into the wall behind him.

"Gotcha!" Isolde smiles. The giant icicle bursts open, releasing massive amounts of mist around Magneto, the purple figure is engulfed in thick mist. The cloud instantly freezes into a ball of ice.

(You got him!)

"No," Isolde sounded grim. "He protected himself."

(What? How?)

A closer look at the ball of ice reveals a refrigerator inside the ice.

"He managed to fit himself inside that before the mist froze."

(W-what?)

The ice starts to crack from the inside.

"Did he anticipate my hollow ice somehow?"

(W-what are we going to do?)

Isolde hears a loud crumbling sound, like a wall breaking apart, then some steel hitting the floor.

"Rutile?" Isolde turns to the sound of the noise. Rutile was running towards the area where the ice ball is.

(What's she doing?)

"Her pendant."

The ice ball breaks apart, pieces of refrigerator and ice fly in all directions. The smaller pieces just bounce off of Rutile as she dodges the larger pieces while running forward. She dives for the steel case, it flies up and away. Magneto floats a slight distance from Rutile.

"Don't you know who I am?" A deep voice speaks from the dome helmet. "I'm Magneto! Master of Magnet-" Magneto just barely dodged a large chunk of ice that Rutile kicked.

"Give back my mother's pendant!"

Magneto levitates several empty registers around himself. Rutile puts one foot back, both hands around chest level with one slightly lower and closer in while the other is slightly higher, she enters a fighting pose, with cat paws.

(We need to get up there!) Lilian screams into Isolde's head (Make a bridge or something!)

"Too risky, he can easily destroy something like that. We have to climb these floors first."

Isolde shoots spiraling mist in front of herself and freezes it into a spiral staircase. Isolde climbs up to the higher floors hoping to quickly get to where Rutile and Magneto were.

Magneto launches the registers at Rutile. The cat-ish girl uses quick fist strikes and arm swings to knock them away, while stepping forward with each attack. Magneto pulls out another large refrigerator and launches it at her. Rutile turns around as it comes and crashes into it with her back and shoulder. The refrigerator flew back to Magneto.

The purple figure merely caught the refrigerator with his power. He sees Isolde climbing up her stairs of ice and throws the refrigerator at her.

"Lilian!" Rutile warns the ice girl.

"Oh shi-!" Isolde jumps off of her stairs and grabs onto a railing. The ice girl quickly freezes herself to the wall. The ice crumbles fast from the force of the impact but Isolde manages to create a platform for her to land and stand on. She's now only a couple floors below and the entire building across from Rutile.

Isolde sees Magneto floating up and away through the hole in the ceiling. Rutile looks up as well. The cat-ish girl hops on the railing and hops to the hole in the roof.

"Rutile!"

XXX

* * *

Rutile jumps onto the roof of the building. She looks around for Magneto. She finds him running away with the steel case. Rutile finds a roof turbine and kicks it towards Magneto. The purple man hears the kick, he stops and turns around. The turbine is stopped mid air, but Rutile wasn't, the Tokiwadai girl flying kicked Magneto's chest. His body flew and hit the rooftop, skidding to a stop.

Rutile rushes over to the dropped steel case. "It's locked?" The case suddenly slides away. Rutile sees Magneto getting up, then floating up.

Magneto points a finger at Rutile. "Come, Esper!" The steel case opens and a single coin floats out from it.

XXX

* * *

Isolde climbs up the hole in the ceiling. A large shockwave flies past her. She feels rumblings from the powerful blast. But what caught her eyes was the body of Rutile flying her way.

"Rutile!" Isolde gets up and places an ice wall behind her. She catches Rutile's body. "Dammit!" Isolde winces slightly.

"Li-lian...?" Rutile regains herself slowly.

Isolde stares at the Magneto, he has his arm stretched out, his hand was positioned as if he just flicked something from his thumb. He lowered his arm slowly.

"What the hell did you do to Rutile?!"

Magneto turns around, runs away, then jumps super high, while the steel case flies behind him and out of sight.

Isolde feels movement in her arms. Rutile manages to get up on her feet, slightly wobbly, she falls on her knees but otherwise fine. She composes her stance while holding her head.

Lilian and Isolde switch control. "Are you alright?" Lilian asks worriedly.

"I... I'm fine..." Rutile answers. "Where... where is he?"

"He's gone," Lilian's voice sounded depressed. "I'm sorry..."

Rutile puts a hand over her chest and clenches it. A slight breeze blows by them.

"Rutile?"

"I feel... tingly...?"

"Tingly?" Lilian ponders her words. "It must've been from the attack, just don't move too much right now."

"I'm a member of Judgement!" They hear a voice behind them.

Both of them turn to see another Tokiwadai student with twin tails holding up a green armband.

"Miss Shirai!" Lilian recognizes her instantly.

"Miss Sterling, and..."

"Miss Sopheria," Lilian completes her line.

Kuroko face palms, "The school isn't going to like this..."

XXX

* * *

"Ms. Yomikawa," Kuroko address the one leading the Anti-Skill.

"Ms. Shirai, any news?"

"I do, but it's one that you won't like."

"... Was a Tokiwadai student involved?"

"How did you-?"

"I guessed," the officer answers. "At the moment I can only think of one person with strong ice powers. How's the damage inside?"

"Minimal, the glass roof is shattered to bits, cash registers are ripped out of their tables, a couple of wrecked refrigerators, and a part of the safety railings pulled out. You'll still have to be careful about the remaining ice in there."

"Noted. What are you going to do with her?"

"For now, I'll have to take them to our Judgment office and make a report to the school. We'll see after that."

"They definitely don't want anyone to know that one of their students got involved." The officer sighs. "They're likely going to pressure to cover it up somehow."

"I'm sorry."

"By the way, as much as I hate to involve civilians, any luck with Miss Misaka? She's one of the few people I know that can probably stop Magneto."

"No, she's always... 'busy with something', as she puts it." (And I promised not to use her phone's GPS to track her down. Where are you Sissy?) "Wait. Did you say 'she's one of'...? Who are the others?"

"Huh? Oh, well there this boy I know that can negate powers, but he's been missing for the past couple of days."

"A boy that can negate powers..." (Wait! Can it be-?)

"And the other one is too lazy to get off the couch."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. We'd best get to our jobs now. See you later."

Kuroko ponders the officer's words. (So that man's been missing for the past couple of days. Sissy's been acting weird for the past couple days. Could she be more concerned with finding him than helping me?! Then again, if we can get both of them to help out, it'll make catching the Magneto much easier.

For now, I gotta get back to Miss Sterling and Miss Sopheria.)

Kuroko teleports away, not knowing about the mind controlled eavesdropper nearby.

XXX

* * *

"So, they're going to the Judgement office? Driver, change course, head for the Judgment office. In the meantime, I'll have to pull a couple favors to recruit Lilian and Isolde..."

**XXX**

* * *

**Author:** So, does anyone have any idea on who the Magneto might be? I'm pretty sure several of you have, and you're likely right. Now ask 'Why'? Why is the Magneto doing all this? If you could solve that, then you pretty much got the whole story worked out. It's just a matter of watching it unfold.


	3. Revalations and Mysteries

"Well," Kuroko walks over to the seats in her Judgment office where Lilian and Rutile were waiting. "There were quite a few witnesses that saw you two in the building. Luckily, the Magneto fried the security cameras, so there's no proof of Miss Sopheria being involved with the incident."

"B-but I-"

"Listen, I know you're new, but the school is very strict about keeping a good public image. Try to cause as little trouble to the school as possible, okay?"

"O-okay..."

"As for you..." Kuroko gives a mean look to Lilian.

"Y-yes?"

"You'll be harder to cover up, you left your power all over the place. Worst case scenario you'll be suspended for a week."

"S-suspended?"

"B-but Miss Sterling-"

"I told you that the school is very, very strict one keeping a good public image, regardless of the circumstances. We will do what we can here, but no promises."

"I-I'm sorry, Lilian, really..."

"It's not your fault," Lilian smiles at her. "Hey, Miss Shirai, can we get out of here now?"

"Miss Sopheria can leave," Kuroko answers. "But you'll have to stay. At least until we can figure out what to do here. With all the departments involved, this could take hours."

"Oh..." Lilian moaned.

"Lilian..."

"I'll be fine Rutile," Lilian smiles. "Do you know your way back to the dorm from here?"

"N-no, but I need some time alone, really..."

"Alright, do you have a phone?" Lilian takes out hers. "Just call me whenever you want to get back and I'll come find you, or try to guide you back."

"There's a bridge a couple miles from here," Kuroko mentions "It's above a train yard. You can hang around the train yard if you want, just don't cause any trouble."

"Thank you," Rutile takes out her phone, which had cat ears, and exchanges numbers with Lilian. "I will call you later when I'm done here, okay?"

"See you," Lilian waves as Rutile leaves the room.

XXX

* * *

Rutile leaves the building silently, not noticing that she had walked past another Tokiwadai student. She plays out the recent events from the mall in her head. After walking a couple miles, she finds the bridge that Kuroko was talking about, right above a train yard. Rutile jumped down onto the gravel and stood, thinking.

She enters her fighting pose and moves her arms out in front of her slowly, using side swings like she did to deflect Magneto's attacks.

(When that thief was attacking me, it felt like he didn't want to hit me directly. All those cash registers that I knocked away, I could've just as easily dodged them, really.)

Rutile moves her arms again. (Yeah, I didn't need to swing my arms so far away to knock them aside. They weren't aimed at me, they were aimed around me. Was he trying to force me somewhere, really?)

Rutile turns around and trusts her back and shoulder forward, pretending to hit something. (The refrigerator was aimed kind of low, and flew much slower. Was it because it was heavier? No, he tossed it much faster at Lilian, or rather he threw it at her ice and not Lilian herself. Just what was he doing, really?)

Rutile stands up straight and puts a hand on her chest. (And finally, his eyes. There was... Sadness? Worry? Fear?) Rutile holds her head and ruffles it up a bit. (I can't think straight right now. I need to calm down. Mother, what should I do?)

Rutile breathes hard, then goes into a pose. She moves her limbs and body slowly yet gracefully. A slight breeze compliments her soft dance. Leaves fly past her as she switches poses and forms.

XXX

* * *

"Hiii Miss Shirai!" A blonde Tokiwadai student busts into Kuroko's office with a loud greeting.

"Ack!" Kuroko nearly jumped. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Oh?" The blonde smiles mischievously. "What's with that hostile reaction?"

"You know why!" Kuroko face palms. "What is your business here? Actually, why are you here in person?"

"I'm here to pick up Miss Sterling of course!"

"What?" Kuroko and Lilian cry out in unison.

"The school didn't call you yet?"

"What do you mean?" Kuroko interrogates.

"I pulled some strings, shall we say..." The blonde smiles mischievously once more.

Kuroko's office phone rings, as if right on queue. The teleporter walks to it slowly and picks up the phone.

"Hello there Miss Sterling," the blonde leans over Lilian, with a smile on her face.

"H-hi..." Lilian nervously responds.

"I've been wanting to meet with you for some time now, I'm sure you know who I am, right?"

"M-Misaki Shokuhou, the Mental Out, the 5th Level 5 and the other Level 5 of Tokiwadai."

"Thaaat's right! But you really didn't need to go into all that detail."

"W-what brings you here?"

"You too? I came to pick you up personally, so you should feel honored."

Kuroko hangs up the phone, then she lets out a very heavy sigh. "I'm sorry Miss Sterling, her story checks through. You're to... stay with Miss Shokuhou for the time being."

"Thanks for that Miss Shirai, come along Miss Sterling, we've got a lot to talk about."

"D-don't I have a say in this?"

"Unfortunately, no," Kuroko sighs. "Just bear with it and do your best not to let your guard down, especially around her."

"Heh, as if that's possible," Misaki responded out loud.

"She's definitely up to something," Kuroko ponders. "But my hands are tied right here."

XXX

* * *

Misaki leads Lilian towards her car."Driver, to the usual cafe please, we have about an hour left."

"An hour before what?" Lilian asks. "What is it that you want from me?"

"Oh it's a very special request that only you can do," Misaki answers cheerfully. "Or rather, it's more suited to Miss Isolde..."

"W-what are you talking about? Ahehehe..."

(There's no point in hiding it from her. Lilian, let me talk.)

Lilian closes her blue eyes, Isolde opens her red ones.

"Out of everyone in the school, why me?"

"It's nice to finally meet with you, Miss Isolde," Misaki give off another playful smile.

Isolde stayed quiet, trying to figure out her options in this situation. There's a Level 5 sitting right next to her, demanding a favor.

"You're wondering about what you can do here, right? I'll let you in on something. There's nothing you can do. I made sure that I have... contingencies."

"..."

"But don't worry, I'm not against you or anything. In fact, my request is very beneficial for you as well."

"How? What's in it for me?"

"Well for one, I'll keep your... secret, secret."

"You knew for a while, why play this card now?"

"I did contemplate saving it for later, but now is the best time to use it. Especially since this is a request that I know you will accept."

"How so?"

"Hold that thought, we're here."

XXX

* * *

Misaki takes a sip out of her tea, Isolde drinks her iced tea.

"You will be... retrieving someone for me, and it's someone you know personally."

"I really don't know many people."

"Then it should be easy for you to figure out who it is that I'm talking about."

"... ...!"

"Now you see where I'm getting at."

(I don't get it. Isolde?)

"But couldn't you have done it yourself?"

"They're tricky, and surprisingly smart for a bunch of lowlifes, to the point of having some kind of special radar that can detect when Espers use their powers. They at least seem to have done their research on me. That and they're extremely paranoid. But I'm certain they have very little on you, if anything."

"Then why not mind control me?"

"Mind controlled people will only follow orders in the most direct way possible. It's really boring that way, not to mention too straightforward and very easily detectable. In cases like this, a significant amount of cunning is required. While you are clever, so am I."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you tried... flying with your powers?"

"Flying? With my power? That's impossible."

"Is it? What if I told you I know of a way to make you fly?"

"... And if this idea of yours actually works?"

"Well, because we've already agreed that my request will make us even from freeing you from Judgment. By telling you how to fly, of course I'll want something in return."

"What could I have that you'd want?"

"You're right, I can easily take anything I wanted from you. However, what I can't seem to get to is your past."

"..."

(I-Isolde?)

"It's a very interesting enigma. You claim to have amnesia and there are no records of anything about you before that fire. I'm certain that it's your most closely guarded secrets."

(Fire? What fire?)

"Why are you so interested in my past?"

"I'm not interested, but I have to know how willing you are to gain my trust."

"What?"

"Up until now, I can only read Miss Lilian's mind. The most recent is only a little after your exhibition with Miss Misaka. You, however, are a true mystery. I can't completely trust mysterious people. And besides, I'm going to tell you how to fly, which is something that a whole lot of people, even with powers, can only dream of."

"... Five years ago..."

(I-Isolde?)

"Oh...?"

"Five years ago, I will focus my mind on a single memory at that point in time. Keep your end of the deal to teach me how to fly, and I will accept your request right after that. We should be even right afterwards."

"Is that right?" Misaki takes out a remote from her bag. "Once I read your memory, you cannot take it back, understood?"

"Neither can you."

"Is that a warning? Trust me, I've seen terrible memories, I have terrible memories. Whatever lies in your past cannot be compared."

"You're right, you can't compare it."

*Click*

The remote dropped onto the table. Misaki leans forward hard, her face covered in fear. It takes every bit of will power to keep herself from screaming out as loud as she can, or the fear had completely swallowed her voice. Everyone else in the cafe notices Misaki struggling. Isolde just took another drink of her iced tea.

"That is... my past. My sin. My fate. My... despair..."

(Isolde! What did she see? You... you never lost your memories?! You were lying to me all this time?! Isolde!)

"I'm sorry, Lilian, but it has nothing to do with you..."

(Like hell it does! When were you going to tell me about this?!)

"Not now. If something happens where you need to know about it, I'll tell you. But not now."

(You...! That better be a promise!)

Misaki looks up at Isolde's sharp eyes, a strong will shone through them.

"H-how... can you...? What was...?"

"Do you really want to know more?"

"..." Misaki's fear prevented her voice from coming out again.

"... I'll wait for you to recover. But now we only have half an hour left. You had best tell me how I can fly, and fast."

XXX

* * *

"Huh?" Rutile senses something... familiar in the air, it's faint but yet it's nearby. She turns around and faces the bridge. She can't see anything from below, she super jumps forward then upwards, landing on the sidewalk on top of the bridge. There was a small breeze flowing through here. Rutile looks around, there was a girl in a Tokiwadai uniform leaning over the other side.

"Is that...?" Rutile looks both ways, it was completely empty, except for a flying newspaper. She walks slowly towards the other girl, who seemed to be depressed. The wind picks up suddenly, and the newspaper slaps Rutile in the face, startling her and letting out a quick yelp.

Rutile pulls the paper off of her face and lets it fly away in the wind. She turns back to face the other girl on the bridge, who had been alerted to her. But now Rutile recognizes who the Tokiwadai student is.

"You're... Miss Misaka, right?"

The other girl looks at Rutile solemnly for a moment.

"Hello?"

Then the girl's face perks up, "That's right! And you are, Miss Rutile?"

Rutile bows, "My name is K-Katherine Rutile Sopheria, really."

"Oh, sorry, I only heard Lilian call you Rutile a lot, so I thought..."

"But when we met earlier, Lilian didn't call me Rutile, really."

"Ah-ahh... really? I must have remembered it wrong. But I was just talking to her right now."

"Miss Lilian's supposed to call me as soon as she was finished at the Judgment office, really."

"S-she's at the Judgment office?"

"We're supposed to come back to the school together. That's why I'm waiting for her here, really."

"I-is that so?" Misaka drops her head a little and turns to the side.

"Miss Misaka... Is there something wrong?"

"..." Misakia leans back on the bridge wall. "Heh... I'm sorry. I've just been too busy lately, my head's a little messed up."

"Miss Misaka... Are you... the Magneto?"

Mikoto's eyes showed surprise for a moment. Then she closed them and smiled. "Yeah... I am."

**XXX**

* * *

**Author: **Well, Misaki is surprisingly difficult to write, I don't think I got her right. Also, just who is it that the Mental Out wants the Arctic Mist to retrieve, and why?


	4. Resolve

**Author:** I'll apologize in advance, at the time of this upload I have much less time to work on my stories. I'll still be uploading the chapters of this up until it's completion but any new stories will be significantly delayed (especially with my preference to not upload anything until I'm a few chapters ahead.) Not to worry though, I still think about my stories a lot so I have time to polish them in my head long before I start typing, I may even think up new ones as time passes.

**XXX**

* * *

"Yeah I see the case," Isolde talks over the radio. "There's a couple guys walking towards it. They don't look like the business type."

"Just keep an eye on them," the voice on the radio responds.

XXX

* * *

_Misaki takes another sip of her tea. She breathes hard for a moment and begins to calm down. She takes out her phone and looks at the time._

"_Will you be okay?" Isolde asks._

"_I'll be fine," Misaki quickly composes herself. "I'm a specialist on mind and memories after all. We can't afford to waste any more time here, anyway. According to the data we found on you, the max speed that you can blow your mist is 50kmph."_

"_The stats that you have are all Lilian's numbers. I've never been tested, but I can assure you that my numbers would be much greater than hers. Even then, that's the max speed that she can control, she can blow mist even faster than that but the faster it is the harder it'll be to control."_

"_As I thought," Misaki pulls out paper and pen from her bag. "Now tell me, does your mist actually come out from your body or does it manifest a little outside of it?"_

"_A little outside of myself," Isolde answers. "I can create extremely strong winds of mist without blowing myself backwards. It's also how I can emit mist without getting my clothes wet."_

"_Then..." Misaki starts drawing. "What if you had something that you can push your mist against, so that it can also push you? Here." She hands over her drawing. It was a stick figure with a pair of triangles pointing out of its back._

"_Wings? How will these make me fly?"_

"_I know about your hollow ice," Misaki informs her. "Basically, you make these wings on your back, and start blowing your mist from inside them. The compressed mist will then blow out from the gaps at the bottom of the wings here, which will push the wings, which will push you."_

"_..."_

_(Wow, I've never seen you this... impressed.)_

"_Well?" Misaki leans forward._

"_I'm thinking," Isolde responds._

_(You're jealous.)_

"_You're the one that slides around on a jet boosted ice board and you didn't think of doing this at all?" Misaki asks._

"_... Alright alright, I think I can make this work. And I think I figured out what you want me to do. You want me to follow someone from above, using my mist to cover myself in a cloud."_

"_I never thought about covering you with your mist to look like a cloud. __Impressive."_

"_I'm going to have to be pretty high though."_

"_That's what this is for," Misaki pulls out some high tech binoculars. "Also." She pulls out an earset. "This is a radio, so that we can keep in touch. I want you to report on everything you find."_

"_Where do I go?"_

"_There's a big metal case that's going to be picked up not too far from here. I want you to follow the ones that's picking it up."_

XXX

* * *

"They're picking up the case," Isolde reports.

"Think you can describe them? We may find out they are."

"Hard to see from here. They look like normal thugs."

"They probably are. Just stay on them."

"Yeah, they just put the case in a van and are driving off."

(Hey Isolde.)

"What is it Lilian?"

(That metal case, it looks familiar.)

"That's because it is. It's the same case that the Magneto used to store everything that was stolen."

(Really? Are you sure?)

"Yeah, I'm certain."

(Then, do you think Rutile's pendant is in there?)

"It most likely is."

(We gotta get it back to her!)

"We will, after we finish this."

"You know, it really does sound weird when you two talk to yourselves."

"You could just not listen."

"So, was something taken from you?"

"Not us, but a friend of ours."

"Is it that new transfer student?"

"Rutile, yeah."

"I've read up on her. She's registered as a Level 3, but her power-"

"Stooop!"

"What?"

"I don't want to know yet. Our teacher wants our class to try and figure it out."

"Oho, so it's kind of like a game is it?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Good luck trying to figure it out though. It's quite an interesting ability to say the least."

"Hmm...? They stopped."

"Where?"

"A building near the edge of the abandoned part of the city. This is seriously one place I did not want to come back to."

"Was it because of your involvement with the double meteors that crashed there?"

"Auugh..."

(Ohhh...)

"I didn't even have to read your mind to figure that out. There was a torn Tokiwadai uniform on the scene, as well as several pieces of melting ice. But the school covered up those facts so it was never reported, at least publically. Luckily for you, there wasn't enough evidence to actually make you suspicious. Of course I helped out a bit."

"Are you going to make me owe you for that as well?"

"No, we're still calling it even after you're done there."

(This person must be really important to Miss Shokuhou.)

"It's not just her."

(What do you mean?)

"You'll find out, for now, I need to land," Isolde flies over to a rooftop of a nearby building, she shatters her wings as she ride to the side, lies on her stomach and uses the binoculars to zoom in. "They're taking the case inside."

"Forget the case, scan the building, do you see anyone you recognize?"

"Not on this side. I'll fly around."

"Don't get seen."

Isolde sprouts icicles on her back as she gets up. She runs off the roof, her icicle wings shoot out jets of mist to push her forward. She flies around and lands on another building, breaking her wings apart. Isolde takes out the binoculars and looks at the building again.

"I found him," Isolde relays her observations. "And he looks really weak."

(K-Kamijou?)

"Shokuhou, I'm going in. Just make sure they can't call Miss Misaka."

"I suppose there's no way for me to stop you. Do you at least have a plan?"

"Yeah, pay those guys back, and hard."

"Make it extra hard. I'll be on my way. Don't let him die."

Isolde sprouts icicles out of her back once again and flies towards the building.

XXX

* * *

Mikoto solemnly walks on the bridge, replaying the events of the last few days in her head.

_Mikoto's phone rings. She sees the number of a certain idiot displayed on screen._

"_H-hello?"_

"_Well, what do you know? It really is the Railgun."_

"_Who is this?!"_

"_Whoa whoa, calm down, I just want to talk. It's not every day we can talk to a Level 5. Especially one that we've kept an eye for a while now."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_We accidently discovered your... shall we say, 'weakness', the night the double meteors crashed. We've had a long time to plan this encounter. I bet you're now trying to track us down. But as you can tell, I've set up several relays and false stations. It'll take you about an hour to trace this signal to an end, even then the place you check out likely won't be where we really are. Hehehe..."_

"_Ngh!"_

"_Let me tell you though, we really underestimated how though this guy was."_

"_You...!"_

"_Now now, we tried not to hurt him too much. He's our hostage after all."_

"_Rgh..."_

"_Of course, being a hostage, his freedom comes at a cost. And don't bother trying to find out where we are, like I said, we had a long time to plan for this. We have a special radar that can detect any Esper using their powers. Don't tell any of your friends either, the consequences could be... fatal..."_

"_Don't you dare touch him!"_

"_Well... why not? I'll comply with that, just make sure you get the money. And make it solid; coins, paper, cards, or even anything that we can pawn. I don't want any strange digital traces hunting me down now."_

She leans over the bridge's short wall to look at the skyline of the city.

"_You're going to have to work faster than that, Railgun. I think he's going to starve to death."_

"_What did you do!?"_

"_Nothing, as we promised. Well, we do give him a bottle of water at least 3 times a day. We don't want him dying on us too soon now, right? Oh, but don't worry, it's all freshly bought from the store. Though, if it's all the same to you, at this rate he won't make it before you reach our agreed sum."_

Mikoto hung her head down. (Someone... please... help me...)

"Ah!" There was a loud yelp behind her.

Mikoto turns around to see a Tokiwadai student swatting away a newspaper.

(T-that's...)

"_Oh? Who's your friend?"_

"_She's a transfer student," Lilian steps aside so that the two girls can see each other. "Miss Misaka, this is Miss Katherine Rutile Sopheria."_

"_N-nice to meet you, it is" Rutile bows nervously. "M-my name's Katherine Rutile Sopheria, it is."_

"You're... Miss Misaka, right?"

"_Wait!"_

_(Hmm? Who-?) Inside the purple Magneto armor, Mikoto turns to see Rutile flying towards her. Mikoto magnetically rips off a piece of railing and wraps it around Rutile's body, then pins her against the wall. (That's... the transfer student?! What's she doing here?! Never mind that, why is she still in the mall? I set off the fire alarm to get everyone out!)_

"_Rutile!"_

_(Is that... Lilian? Isolde? They're here too? No, can't worry about that now. They're good enough to give me trouble. I just need to get as much as I can and get out. Hopefully I can scare them away.)_

_..._

"_Give back my mother's pendant!"_

_(Your mother's pendant? ... I'm sorry, I really am. But I can't right now... I have to do this!)_

_..._

_Mikoto floats through the hole in roof. (I'm out. Thank goodness I didn't have to fight that hard.) Mikoto hears a loud banging noise. She turns around and looks up, a roof turbine is flying towards her. Mikoto lifts up a hand to stop it, her radar detects something else, coming in much faster. Her chest is hit with a flying kick, her body bounces along the roof until it stops. (D-damn...) Mikoto gets up slowly. (That was a heck of a kick. Where's the case?) Mikoto sees Rutile right next to the case, she uses magnetism to retrieve it to her side. (I'll have to knock her out, but with what?) Mikoto opens the case magnetically and floats out a single coin. (If I use the shockwave from my railgun, I can take her out without hurting her too much.) Mikoto poses, ready to fire. "Come, Esper!" (Just aim my attack slightly away...)_

_The very instant that Rutile moved, Mikoto fires. The attack flies from her hand... but Rutile had managed to make it just out of reach of Mikoto's arm. (S-so fast! B-but the shockwaves at this range-!) Mikoto saw for an instant the determination in Rutile's eyes, but the determination disappeared in a flash as Rutile's body flies away. (NO!)_

"_Rutile!" Lilian's voice rings through the air. The ice girl catches Rutile's body._

_(Thank goodness...) Mikoto lowers her arm slowly._

"_What did you do to Rutile?!"_

_(I'm so sorry...) Mikoto turns around, runs then flies away. (Please forgive me...)_

(It looks like she's okay, that's a relief.) Mikoto starts to smile.

"Hello?"

"That's right!" Mikoto suddenly gets talkative. "And you are, Miss Rutile?" (That's strange, where's Lilian?)

The other girl bows, "My name is K-Katherine Rutile Sopheria, it is."

"Oh, sorry, I only heard Lilian call you Rutile a lot, so I thought..."

"But when we met earlier, Lilian didn't call me Rutile, really."

"Ah-ahh... really?" (D-damn!) "I must have remembered it wrong." (W-what should I-?) "But I was just talking to her right now, so maybe that's why-."

"Miss Lilian's supposed to call me as soon as she was finished at the Judgment office, really."

"S-she's at the Judgment office?" (Crap...)

"We're supposed to come back to the school together. That's why I'm waiting for her here, really."

"I-is that so?" Mikoto drops her head a little and turns to the side. (Now what do I do...?)

"Miss Misaka..." Rutile interrupts her thoughts "Is there something wrong?"

Mikoto silently leans back on the bridge wall. "Heh... I'm sorry. I've just been too busy lately, my head's a little messed up." (Everything's messed up right now.)

"Miss Misaka... Are you... the Magneto?"

(She... she figured it out somehow?) Mikoto pushes herself from the wall and smiles. (No, it doesn't matter anymore. I've gone too far to hide it now.) "Yeah... I am."

"But... why?"

"Heh, before I answer that, why don't you tell me how you found out?"

Rutile holds out a hand, "Your aura, the magnetic aura around you. I didn't have time to think about it then, but now I know, it's the exact same aura as the Magneto's. Also," Rutile puts one foot back and held out an arm, "When you used that one attack against me, the Magneto's pose was exactly the same as yours."

"If that's all you have, then even with my admission, I won't be charged and arrested." (Now that you know, what do you think of me?) "What's this thing about feeling my aura anyway? You think you're some kind of cat or something?" (Will you berate me?) "Well, I guess that is kind of what you're going for." (Will you antagonize me?) Mikoto points at Rutile's hair. "You said your given names were Katherine and Rutile? Lilian already calls you 'Rutile', so I'll call you 'Kat'."

"That's fine, really. But I don't want to get you arrested, I just want to know, why?"

"I got tired of being a goody two shoes, so I decided to have some... fun..."

"Fun? You had fun stealing other people's money and belongings?"

"Let me tell you, it was quite the rush! Don't worry though, it's just a bunch of pranks. I'll return everything once someone manages to catch me. Oh but I have absolutely no intention of getting caught." (At least, not until he's safe.)

"Why...?"

"I already told you."

"Why are you lying?!"

Mikoto's eyes widened for a moment. She then smirked. "Lying? What makes you think that I'm lying?" (Please, don't get any friendlier to me... I... I don't know if I can take it anymore!)

"What you were doing, I can tell that it wasn't a prank."

"What makes you say that?" (Just stop. At any other time, I would want to be your friend. But not now, especially not now.)

"You were the one that set off the alarm in the mall, right?"

"Bingo." (She's not as naive as I thought. Well, she is a student of Tokiwadai, even if she just arrived here.)

"You wanted to make sure that no one was inside before you started stealing. Any regular prankster would've just set off the alarm and got away. But what you're doing, isn't a prank, it's something more serious."

"Impressive, though that doesn't really prove anything." (But you're right on the mark.)

"When we tried to stop you, you attacked us. But also, you tried to avoid hurting us as much as possible if your attacks went through. So, what I think is-"

"Stop," Mikoto interrupts suddenly. "That's enough..."

"Miss Misaka?"

"Since you figured it out, I don't want you to get any more involved in this."

Rutile shakes her head. "It's too late, I'm already as deeply involved as you are now."

"What?"

"Like you, I've also lost something precious to them. And I want to get it back."

Mikoto stays quiet for a moment.

"_Don't tell any of your friends either, the consequences could be... fatal..."_

"Then, I can't let you go any further..." (Lilian, wherever you are. I'm sorry.)

"Miss Misaka? What are you-?" Rutile sees a spark flash in Mikoto's hair.

"You're right, I didn't want to harm anyone. I did my best to make sure no one got seriously hurt. But if you insist on getting involved, then I have to stop you. I can't afford to let anyone try and get in the way, otherwise they might... they might..." Mikoto's voice trails off and hung her head.

"What they have... is that important to you?"

Mikoto steps back, completely stunned at the question. There was nothing but silence for a long moment.

"If it's that important, why didn't you tell someone?"

"What? I just told you that if anyone were to challenge them, especially if they're connected to me, then... then...!"

"You don't trust anyone?"

"?!"

"You don't believe in anyone? Including your friends?"

"N-no! It's not that! J-just what are you talking about?"

"Are you that scared to lose it? Or is it so important to you that you can't rely on anyone else to get it back?"

"W-what the hell is with these questions?!"

"If I promised you, to get both our precious items back, would you trust me?"

"_I promise, I'll come back with your little sister. So wait right here."_

"No no no no NO!" Mikoto sparks up. "You think I haven't tried?! You think I want continue doing what I'm doing?" Her body emits powerful bolts that encircle around her. "I HAVE to do this! I've got no other choice! Now, stay out of it!"

Rutile breathes deeply. She takes a step back, she raises her arms up to her chest level, with one arm slightly pulled in and the other slightly stretched out.

"Is that... a fighting pose? Are you... going to fight me?"

"There's something that I want to get back too. If this is the only way to convince you to trust me, then..."

"You really don't know what I'm capable of, do you?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It really does matter! If you fight me, right here, right now, you could die!"

"A friend is a friend, it doesn't matter how strong they are."

"We are NOT friends! We've only just met today and already I've stolen your precious pendant! I almost seriously hurt you on that rooftop! Now I'm going to use my full powers against you to force you to stop. Why would you call me your friend?"

"Because, at this moment, we have so much on common. If this was just a regular day, we wouldn't have known so much about each other." Rutile, still in her fighting pose, gives off an extreme smiley face. "It's a pleasure to be your friend, Miss Misaka! Really!"

Mikoto's eyes show a slight shock, then intense sadness as tears swell up inside her. "Goodbye... Kat." The electromaster grabs a handful of electricity and throws it with all her might.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author: **Now we know who it is that Misaki wants retrieved, and also why Touma was missing for the past few days, not to mention the reason that Mikoto was acting so strange. But can Lilian and Misaki save Touma before Mikoto or Rutile seriously get hurt?


	5. Force of Nature

**Author:** This chapter and the next one has an interesting relationship. I actually finished the next chapter first and this one right after. However, when I went to re-read them in their original order, I realized that this chapter would be missing an important element if I were to upload the next chapter first. So I flipped them around, and this chapter felt much better and much closer to what I had wanted out of it compared to the original order.

Oh, right, about Rutile's powers. While I do have a general idea on how they work, I don't know if I managed to explain them in an understandable way. So don't hesitate to ask and I can try improve on it (both her powers and my own grasp of them) in later stories.

Anyway, Enjoy!

XXX

* * *

Rutile ducks down just before Mikoto fired her electricity. She dashed in inhumanly fast and palmed Mikoto in the chest. The Level 5 is sent floating back off the bridge and towards the train yard below. The electromaster uses magnetism on the nearby containers to slow her descent. She lands softly on the gravel, holding her chest.

(Ugh. That's some hit. Just what is her power? I don't want to hurt her, but I don't know what she's capable of. Better be careful.)

Mikoto hears someone landing on the gravel some distance away. She detects incredibly fast movement through the iron sand on the ground and her magnetic field. Mikoto barely twisted her body in time to avoid another palm to the chest. Mikoto's hand remained in the attacker's path and blasted the body with an electric bolt.

"Ack!" Rutile stumbles back momentarily, then dashes away.

Mikoto tries to follow, but she lost her opponent in the maze of containers. "I thought you martial artists were the direct combat type! What's with the hiding?"

"Martial artists also use feints and misdirection," Rutile's voice echoes among the containers. "Even Ninjutsu is a martial art. Besides, this isn't exactly a regular kind of fight."

Mikoto turns and shoots a stream of electricity. Rutile dashes away and behind another container.

"Tiger, Cheetah, Cougar, Leopard, and Lion. The 5 claws of the Pisica Feroce style focuses on Strength, Speed, Stealth, Stability and Supremacy."

"Seriously?" Mikoto turns and shoots lighting. Rutile jumped upwards, landing on top of a small stack of containers. Mikoto tries blasting her while jumping up to follow. Rutile jumps behind the stack as Mikoto makes it to the top. The electric girl looks down the other side to find no one. "You're taking this whole cat theme of yours to ridiculous levels."

"It's from my mother's side of the family. They're... cat people, to put it bluntly."

Mikoto sends out a circular wave of electricity all around. She awaits the feedback from her wave figures out that Rutile is hiding behind a container, waiting to pounce. The electromaster shoots a powerful electric blast at the container.

"Ahhh!" Rutile screams as the container conducts the electric attack right into her. Rutile collapsed on the ground, looking up. "Oww... I forgot these are steel containers." Rutile sees something bright suddenly coming into view above the containers, it was Mikoto with her arm charged and ready to fire!

Rutile rolls her legs upwards and pushes the ground with her hands, barely avoiding the electric bolt that Mikoto shot down. When the Level 5 herself landed where she fired, Rutile is already on her feet.

The cat girl took a couple quick steps and cartwheeled forward. Mikoto sidesteps to easily avoid it. The electromaster fired another electric beam at close range, Rutile side steps just in time to avoid it, though her hair sparks up from the close proximity. The cat girl nabs Mikoto's left arm, turns around, whacks the electromaster with a back fist to the gut, light uppercut to the face, and an elbow to the midsection hard enough to knock her to the ground.

"Rgh!" Mikoto shoots more electric beams at Rutile.

The cat girl jumps around to avoid the attacks, bouncing around the ground and between containers. Mikoto gets up and charges the two sets of containers on either side of herself and Rutile.

Rutile braces herself, "What's she doing?"

Visible beams of electricity suddenly flow between the two sets of containers, they angle slowly as they moved. Mikoto sends them towards the cat girl. Rutile jumps forward through a narrow opening.

Rutile tries to dash ahead, but she sense more electricity being charged up around her. She backflips just as streams of electricity bolts across the containers where she stood. They chase her down the thin corridor and the cat girl backflips again in a way to narrowly avoid them all, while landing flat on the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me," Mikoto drops her electricity from the containers. She fires an electric bolt on the grounded girl.

Rutile's body suddenly twirls upwards, over the stack of containers. Mikoto runs over to the other side of the stack and sees a slightly dizzy Rutile trying to regain her balance. Mikoto tries firing another electric blast, Rutile jumps up and bounces off a container towards Mikoto. The electromaster steps back as Rutile lands low in front of her. The cat girl's torso gets up quickly while firing off a quick jab at Mikoto's chest.

The electromaster stumbled back a bit. Her magnetic field tells her to bite the pain as another attack is coming. Mikoto uses her magnetic field to sense where the attacks are coming from. Two quick jabs on high, a high kick, a small jumping punch, an elbow thrust, a punch aimed low, a knee to the mid section with a quick fist jab follow up, a large swinging punch. Mikoto had managed to keep her body away from all nine attacks while she feels Rutile's upper body pulling back slightly. Mikoto mistakenly lets her guard down as Rutile's arms swung around then gave her a double palm push on her chest.

The electromaster's body flew back slightly until she caught herself with magnetism. Rutile charges forward to capitalize. The catgirl's body is bombarded by thick flying black sand then blown away, hitting the ground.

"Wh-what?" Rutile looks at the whirling black sand encircling Mikoto. She looks at her clothes, which were ripped and torn from the sand.

"I was trying not to go overboard," Mikoto begins explaining. "You're a lot more difficult than I thought thanks to your instinct against my electricity. I can't spend too much time here. I have to knock you out!"

Mikoto waves a hand forward, a huge chunk of the sand cloud flies out.

"Aaaaahhh, yikes!" Rutile scrambles to her feet and runs away as fast as she could. She looks back to see the cloud of black sand closing in behind her. Rutile super jumps forward into the maze of containers. She bounces off the containers incredibly fast, almost seemingly flying through the train yard while being chased by a black cloud.

The sky is suddenly blocked by a blanket of sand. Rutile looks ahead and sees another cloud fly in towards her. She manages to get out of the maze to a more open area, but it was a trap. Rutile stops and lands on the ground, sand was everywhere around her.

Mikoto was looking on from the top of a lamp post. She raises a hand forward, "Forgive me..." Mikoto clasps the hand tightly.

The whirling sand dome implodes.

"What?" Mikoto senses something wrong through her magnetic control of the iron sand storm.

"Rrraaagh!"

The iron sand cloud explodes violently, with Rutile at the center. There was a small crater where she stood.

"She... repelled all that sand?" Mikoto watches Rutile drop to one knee and regain her breath. "Whatever her power is, that blast took quite a toll on her. Her power looks similar to Awatsuki's." Mikoto calls forth the iron sand again, having it whirl around her.

Rutile looks up at where Mikoto stood. The cat girl gets up on her feet while calming her breathing a bit. "I really can't let that happen again." Rutile looks around for something to use.

Mikoto points a finger at Rutile. Her iron sand storm rushes downwards like a black wave. Rutile back flips behind a container. The container suddenly flies toward Mikoto, the electromaster uses her iron sand to catch it. A couple more containers fly at the Railgun. Mikoto again uses the mass of iron sand catch the two containers.

"Just how is she do-ooah-?" The lamp post started shaking violently with Mikoto trying to keep herself straight. She feels the pole being lifted up then swung down. Mikoto jumps off near the ground and rolls. Iron sand and metal containers drop from the sky with no magnetism to control them. The electromaster quickly looks to see what had happened, Rutile just drops the lamp post she was holding. (She... carried that? Ripped it off the ground? No it was ripped apart!) Where the lamp post used be is now a metal stump with wires sticking out of it.

Rutile dashes full speed towards Mikoto. The electromaster gets up and steps back. Mikoto leans back to avoid a jumping roundhouse, and crossed her arms to block a follow up straight kick. But her stumbling from the block left her unprepared for the low sweep kick when Rutile landed low.

Mikoto falls backwards, her back hits the ground. Rutile jumps up, Mikoto rolls away as the cat girl's fist nearly hits the ground. The electromaster gets up and shoots small clouds of iron sand. Rutile deflects those with her hands as she moves in.

Mikoto focuses on her magnetic field, sensing where the cat girl will strike in order to avoid getting hit. A jab to the chest followed by a hook to the face, a high kick, a small jumping uppercut, elbow, another high kick, punch to the face, low sweep kick, an upwards arm swing. Mikoto managed to avoid all those attacks, but the last one left her vulnerable to the final hit, a full forward step shoulder and back tackle.

Mikoto's body flies into a container. The electromaster lets herself stick to it via magnetism as she recollects her head. She sees Rutile jumping towards her position. Mikoto rolls away as the cat girl lands beside where she originally hit the wall. The Railgun leans next to the wall she's sticking to. The cat girl stands up straight, and sideways.

(W-what? How can stand she stand up like that without feeling the effects of-?)

Rutile runs to Mikoto and tries to attack as if they were on normal ground, and Mikoto was lying down. The Railgun rolls away and keeps rolling. Rutile eventually slides along the wall.

(H-how?) Mikoto keeps rolling away as fast as she could. (She's not actually on the wall, it's more of a hover slide, but it's incredibly fast. And I'm running out of wall.) Mikoto manages to shoot a small, quick bolt at Rutile while rolling.

"AH!" The slider is hit right in the chest and is knocked off of the wall.

Mikoto herself rolls off the remainder of the container wall, she uses her magnetism to land on the gravel, and between some rails. (Train tracks...)

"Oh..." Rutile lifts her head off of the ground and shakes it slightly. "What's that noise?" The cat girl turns to see dozens of metal beams being ripped off of the ground. "Really?!"

Rutile flips backwards onto her feet. The rails start flying her way as she enters her battle pose. The rails are knocked aside as they come, one after the other, while Rutile is forced on the defensive, constantly moving backwards.

(The rails aren't touching her, like the iron sand. She has some kind of repelling field around her, a thin one, but a strong one. I'm guessing she has to actively concentrate on where she wants it, which means...)

Rutile continues to deflect the storm of railings with her fists and evasion. Her waist is suddenly wrapped by a metal railing from behind.

"What?"

The railing drags her down to the ground. Several more turn into arcs and pin her down even harder. The rest pile on top in an unorganized mess, carefully positioned so that all the weight is on the arced railings and not on her body. Just for good measure, a couple containers were placed on top of that.

"Just stay down there," Mikoto kneels down to tell Rutile. "Let's end it here."

"I can't," Rutile responds. "I have to get it back. It's too important to me."

"Look, I'll try to make it up to you somehow, please..."

"No!" Rutile yells out. "You can't, not for this."

"Is that little pendant really worth so much to you?"

"It is! That pendant's been a family heirloom for generations. But more than that, it's the last thing that my mother gave me."

"The last thing? Why?"

"My mother... died... shortly after giving birth to me."

Mikoto's eyes widened.

"All I know about her are the stories that I've been told. Right after I was born, the first thing my mother did was give me the pendant. That's why..."

Rutile slowly gets up, pushing against everything that's been piled on top of her. The beams holding her to the ground are easily pulled out.

Mikoto steps back slowly and watches. (How is she doing that? She's lifting and moving them around like they weigh nothing. They 'weigh' nothing...?)

The containers slide off the pile, one of them lands between the two girls, partially blocking Mikoto's view. The mess of railings fall every which way, Rutile stands up and walks forward while the railings drop behind her. The cat girl places her hands on the railing wrapped around her waist and rips it in half. The cat girl walks forward and shoves the container between them aside with one hand.

"I see now..." Mikoto readies herself. "Your power. The way that you move, attack, defend, how you can easily move those heavy objects. You can control gravity, can't you?"

"Only a little bit, I'm only a Level 3 because of the short range of my power. Really."

"Your range?"

"I have to almost touch things in order to affect them. As long as I know their size, shape, and where they're coming from, I can knock anything away the instant before it can reach me. Really."

"Then how did you guard against my iron sand?"

"I extended a gravity field around myself and turned it into a repelling field using reverse gravity. It takes a lot of energy though depending on what and how much I'm trying to repel as well as how big the field is. So I don't like to use it. Really."

"And you got your speech habit back too."

"I did? Really?"

"You lost it for a while."

"Guess that only happens when I get serious, really." Rutile scratches her head and smiles nervously. Then she gets into her fighting pose. "Are we going to continue?"

"... You're especially strong for a Level 3, to last against me this long."

"You weren't fighting all out. I can tell whenever I got close to you."

"And you could've ended the battle as soon as you touched me."

"I don't like using my powers on other people directly, especially in a hand to hand fight. Though I did use it on you back up on the bridge to get us down here. I'm not above using anything else against super powered people though. What about you?"

"I didn't want to go all out, not against someone I don't know anything about, especially not against someone I didn't want to hurt. Now that I know what your power is, I can easily figure out a way to beat you. We're finishing this."

Rutile hears loud rumbling in the air, there were dark clouds gathering in the sky above them.

"I don't know what your limits are, but from the looks of it, you can deflect everything I throw at you, except electricity and lightning, because they don't have a definitive size or shape. Though your unnatural sensitivity to electricity makes it hard to hit you with it. But can you avoid something like this?"

A large and powerful bolt struck down where Rutile stood. Mikoto saw that Rutile did a sweeping kick behind herself to launch several metal railings in into the air before jumping away.

"The metal absorbed a lot of the strike before it hit the ground," Mikoto turns her head and sees Rutile clinging on a container. Mikoto shoots a bolt of electricity from her hands. Rutile jumps away and hides behind a stack of crates.

"Here we go again," Mikoto hops on top of the stack and looks over the edge. Sure enough, there's nothing there. She ducks low and to the side, avoiding a palm to the back. Mikoto twists around quickly and delivers an electric palm blast to Rutile's chest.

"Ack!" Rutile's body flew a bit and landed on the other side of the crate.

Mikoto is ready to attack again, but the crate suddenly tilted upwards on the cat girl's end. The electromaster loses her footing and falls back, Rutile gets up and runs down the tilted crate. Mikoto uses magnetism to stop herself from falling, she's tackled from behind by Rutile and dragged down to the ground.

Both girls roll on the ground with little space to separate them. Mikoto gets up first and sees Rutile trying to charge her. The electromaster twirls around to deliver a kick, the cat girl catches the leg and pulls, forcing Mikoto to step forward into an elbow jab to the midsection, a light shoulder back tackle and finally a strong palm push that knocks her away.

Mikoto uses magnetism to land on her feet. Rutile chases her to where she stood. Large whirling black sand suddenly encircles the Railgun. The cat girl stops herself before getting too close. Mikoto sees Rutile through the cloud, the electromaster sends a stream of black sand out to chase her opponent.

Rutile jumps backwards side to side, she lures the sand stream to one area the quickly flies around and charges forward. Mikoto sees this through her protective cloud, another stream of sand flies out to intercept. Rutile stretches out an arm that blocks and scatters the incoming sand.

(A more compact gravity deflection field...)

Mikoto launches railings at Rutile. The cat girl stops, she jumps up high as a pair of metal beams strike the ground where she stood. Railings fire out from Mikoto's protective sand barrier into the sky after Rutile. The cat girl knocks some of them away easily, others she twists her body around to bounce between them in order to get closer to Mikoto faster. Rutile senses something in the air, her foot steps on a railing, has gravity stick it to her foot, and she kicks it forward, intercepting a lightning bolt from Mikoto.

The railing impales the ground besides the electromaster. The electromaster herself hops backwards and has magnetism levitate her some extra distance. Rutile lands where Mikoto used to be, the cat girl feels an attack coming her way, grabs a nearby container, shoves it between herself and Mikoto like slamming a door. Lightning, sand and railings slam into the container, none of them piercing through it completely.

Mikoto quickly sends a bolt down from the sky right behind the container. "Missed."

The container suddenly flies forward. The electromaster waves her arm, the container jumps and flies harmlessly overhead, revealing the charging cat girl. Mikoto's sand cloud barrier intensified, stopping the attacker in her tracks. Rutile jumps back as Mikoto sends another sand stream after her.

Rutile readies to deflect the stream with her fist. An electric bolt flies from the sand stream into Rutile's body.

"AH!" Rutile is blasted back by the attack. "Ow! She sent her electricity through her iron sand?" The cat girl sees another sand stream headed her way. She scrambles onto her feet and dashes away.

Rutile hides behind some containers and waits for an opening. "Something doesn't feel right..." Rutile senses something and turn around, a black stream of sand is headed in her direction. The cat girl dashes away just as it fires an electric bolt. She notices another stream in the direction she was heading and changes course, where another stream was waiting for her. It shot out an electric bolt, Rutile just barely dodged it.

(H-how is she finding me?) Rutile bounces around some more containers, one that she tried to push off of gave her a static shock, then another, then another... (What's with all the static in the air?) Rutile sees a sand stream flying in her direction, she barely dodged the electric bolt that fired out of it. (Is that how she's finding me? So much for waiting for an opening.)

"I can't believe she's still able to fight back. I going to have to..." Mikoto pulls out a coin from her pocket.

(T-this feeling is...!) Rutile extends her feet to the ground, digging into it until she stopped. A large white beam shot by not too far in front of her. (That attack from the roof! If I kept going, it wouldn't have hit me, but it'd be close enough to knock me out again. She's much more serious now. I have to be too.)

Rutile looks up and sees railings diving in at her, she knocks them around. A couple of them she kicks to the iron sand streams, intercepting electric bolt that were fired from them. She low sweeps a nearby container, sending it into the sky above her to stop a large lightning bolt from the clouds. Rutile hops to the side slightly while defending herself. She jumps up after the container she sent to the sky.

Mikoto sees the ariborne container suddenly headed her way and waves her arm, sending it over her head. She prepares to fire her railgun again, but she couldn't find out where Rutile was. The electromaster feels her sand barrier dissipate behind her. Mikoto turns around and narrowly avoids a kick to the face and a high punch, but it was followed up by a slight jumping spin kick to the chest that knocks her back. Mikoto quickly magnetizes her footing, at the cost of her sand barrier. She positions herself and hastily aims her coin at the cat girl.

Rutile steps forward and ducks incredibly low with arms and legs stretched out, barely avoiding the railgun shot.

(Sh-she-!)

Ruitle quickly gets up from her position, and palms Mikoto hard in the chest to knock her back.

Mikoto concentrates on not hitting the ground. She manages to hold herself using magnetism. Mikoto quickly gets another coin ready and gets into position, at the first sight of Rutile, she fires.

The railgun was intercepted halfway between the two girls by another attack coming in from the opposite direction!

(Wh-what was that?) Mikoto watches as the clouds between herself and Rutile begin to clear. She sees the cat girl in a pose that's practically the same as her own. (That's my...! She used a railgun? No, it was gravity! She used gravity to imitate my railgun!)

"Is that your strongest attack?" Rutile asks as she relaxes her body. "Lilian said it was famous."

"Just because it's my signature attack doesn't mean it's my strongest. And in case you haven't noticed, I have other ways to fight!"

"Miss Misaka, you're barely standing now. You've taken more hits than most normal people could take."

"I could say the same thing about you. The first bolt that I hit you with had enough power to knock out any regular person. Every bolt after that was stronger than the last. The fact that you're still standing is... inhuman!"

"I'm only one sixty forth inhuman! Really!"

"What?"

"I-I said that it's only natural for people to fight harder for what we cherish most. Just what is it that was taken from you?"

"... I can't say..."

"It's not some_thing_, it's some_one_, isn't it?"

"..." Mikoto was about to say something, but closed off her mouth.

"I can't think of any other reason for you to fight this hard, to endure so much... I'm right, aren't I?"

"Assuming that you are, do you still want to do this? If you know what I'm fighting for, do you really want to be responsible for his life?"

"I know what's it's like to fight for someone, I'm doing it right now. You don't think anyone can save him? Not even you with your power?"

"I already told you that I tried!" Mikoto sparks up again. Sand, railings and electricity circle around her. "If I can't do it? Who can?"

"Your friends..."

Mikoto is stunned at the clichéd answer. She places a palm on her face, "Don't... don't be so naive. You've seen the power that I have! None of my friends can come even close to that!"

"So, you'll only let your friends help you if they're stronger?"

"What are you saying?"

"One hit. I think your body can only withstand one more hit. If I manage to get that, will I be strong enough to get your trust?"

"... heh..." Mikoto's body trembles slightly. "Aheheheh..."

"Miss Misaka?"

"Alright, we'll play it your way," the ground cackles from massive amounts of magnetic energy being released from Mikoto's body. Even the containers started to shake from the sheer amounts of magnetic force, two of them floated to Mikoto's side. "Just try and hit me. No. Knock me out in one more hit!"

Mikoto waves both her arms forward. Two of the floating containers fly towards Rutile.

Rutile closes her eyes... "Mother, guide me. My friend needs my help..."

The cat girl backhands one away. She opens her eyes and hops slightly to catch the other one, she used her gravity power to drag it into the ground. Rutile back flips as electricity struck her position, grabbing some rocks before getting back to her feet. She tosses them up and spin kicks them with a gravity boost into a large sand cloud, the supersonic rocks disintegrate the cloud.

Railings fly in but are easily deflected with Rutile's arms and gravity repel. Rutile grabs one of the railings and impales it into the container. She then swings the gravity free container around and upwards into the sky to intercept a large lightning bolt coming down. The cat girl jumps back as the Railgun's signature attack flies through, its shockwaves push her away behind a stack of two containers.

Mikoto drops her railgun arm and keeps a close eye on the containers Rutile's body flew behind. At the same time the top container flies straight up as the bottom one flies forward to Mikoto.

(There we go, as soon as I redirect that away, she'll come charging right through.) Mikoto slows the container down with magnetism and has it fly sideways. The electromaster was about to fire some electric blasts at the cat girl, but her target wasn't there. (She's gone into hiding again?)

Mikoto raises a hand to stop the other container mid air a few meters above her as she scans around. (Where'd she go?) She feels something off with her magnetism. A quick glance at the container above her reveals it to still be moving, despite her having enough magnetism to stop it. (She's on top of that?)

Mikoto raises both hands to put more magnetic power onto it. The container stopped briefly, but slowly continued downwards. Mikoto steadily ups her magnetic power on the container. Rutile pushes from the other side with her gravity power, steadily increasing it to move it down. The two girls are locked in an invisible battle of magnetism vs gravity.

(D-damn! I... can't...!) Mikoto feels her body starting to give way to all the damage she's been inflicted. Her mind is struggling between remaining conscious and keeping her powers up. The container slowly begins to descend upon her with each passing moment.

Mikoto closes her eyes as she continues to push back with all she's mentally got. (Am I... really...?)

_Misaka..._

Mikoto opens her eyes in absolute resolution. Mikoto lets out a loud scream, unleashing a massive magnetic storm at the airborne container. The girl's power starts to tear up the ground around her, sending anything remotely magnetic into the sky.

Rutile, on her hands and knees, struggles to push down the container with her gravity power. She can feel it getting pounded by magnetic forces and many magnetic debris. Suddenly a jolt of electricity hits the container, travels around it and into Rutile.

"AHHHH!" Rutile is electrocuted through the container. "Not... not, this, time!" Rutile gathers all the willpower she has to power endure it, her pupils momentarily thinning into a slit.

Mikoto feels the gravitational force on the container increasing immensely, causing the container to descend. She retaliates by increasing her magnetic force. "I... I...!"

The container is ripped in half down the middle, Mikoto sees Rutile flying through the ripped container. Her eyes widened in surprise, the last thing she saw was the cat girl forming a fist and pulling her arm back.


	6. The Artic Mist Rises

Doors are blown off the wall by furiously strong winds. The gang members shield themselves from the flowing cold air that was freezing the room. A blue haired girl in a Tokiwadai uniform walks through the doorway as more intense winds follow.

(Busting in through the front door? THAT'S your plan?)

"If you've got any better ideas, let's hear them."

(...)

The winds die down. The gang members see the Tokiwadai student walking right into their hideout.

"Stop her!" one of them yells.

All of them tried to move, but can't. Their legs were frozen to the floor all the way up to their knees. Many of them reached for weapons, all of which were frozen so cold that it hurt to hold them.

(What about Kamijou?)

"He'll be alright, as long as he doesn't touch that wall."

XXX

* * *

"B-Boss! We're being attacked!"

"What? By who? How?"

"I-I don't know, some chick from Tokiwadai! She's freezing everything!"

"That's impossible," the leader walks over to a portable pad. "The radar isn't detecting any Espers in the area."

"I'll check it out," a young man in a purple suit with a green tie offered, as he flushed a whole deck of cards from one hand to the other.

"Alright, Hamill," the boss agreed. "Sparrow, go with him."

"Do I have to?" a semi buff looking young man whined.

"That's an order," the boss demanded. "You," he points to the messenger. "Get all the loot and have the escape van ready. I've got a call to make."

"Was this part of the plan, Hakon?" a young woman teased.

"Obviously not, Marian." The boss listens on the phone for someone to pick up. "Hey Railgun! You've got a lot of explaining to do!"

"Oohhh, how exciting!"

"What the-? You're not the Railgun!"

"Give the clever boy a Nobel prize!"

"Who are you? What's going on?"

"Me? Why I'm just a little ol' Level 5 that just so happens to go to the same school as the Railgun."

"The Mental Out. You used your powers to get people to intercept this call."

"You know about me, that's not surprising. You should also know that you never mess with me. And now I've got someone after you."

"We haven't done anything to you!"

"On the contrary, you have something that I want. I'm simply taking it."

"How is that possible? ... If you tell us what it is, then we'll give it to you."

"Now where's the fun in that? Besides, I want to see what fun things my little acquaintance can come up with." Misaki hangs up, the boss could've sworn he heard a giggle as she did.

XXX

* * *

On the next floor of their building hideout, several mooks get ready as they watch a door. The door is blasted down by strong winds and thick mist flies into the large room. Everyone opens fire with their weaponry and abilities until the mist got too thick to see further than arms length.

"Well, that was a rude welcome!" A girl's voice echoed through the area. "I had thought that you'd want to play with my pets for a bit. Looks like I'll have to let them play with you..."

One of the mooks sees a wolf of ice fly at him, he screams out. The others hear his scream, a loud crashing noise, and shattering ice.

"So that's what happens when a frozen human shatters to pieces... Eww..."

One of the mooks panic and finds a wall. He follows it to the door and tries to open it. But it was frozen shut.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I-I wasn't going anywhere! I swear to-"

"Swear to me!"

A very loud noise of something freezing, then shattering startles all the others. Some of them had managed to huddle together and formed a ring. But there was one weak point, the center. The mooks were attacked and assaulted from the inside of their circle.

The sounds of combat and breaking ice fills the floor for a few seconds, then silence takes over once again.

"Eeny... meeny... miny... moe..."

More ice shattering was heard in the thick mist. Then another, then another...

"Oh wow, half of him flew across the room there."

The last one was shivering and quivering from fear and the cold. Some ice breaks apart, making a loud noise. The mook shot randomly in the direction of the noise. There was no response. He shot again in a random direction, again there was no response.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Here..." a girl whispers into his ear from behind.

"Ahh-!" The mook turns around quickly and briefly sees a Tokiwadai girl, upside down, as the mist thickens until nothing can be seen.

XXX

* * *

"That was fun," Isolde smiles as she makes into the next floor and the next large room.

(Did you really have to do all that? You were even creeping me out.)

"Theatricality and deception are powerful tools. Besides, knocking them out the old fashioned way was getting kind of boring."

"That's as far as you go," a young man in a purple suit with a green tie walks in from the other end of the room, accompanied by a slightly buff friend. The man in the suit shuffled a deck of cards in front of his body between his hands.

"Hey, Hamill," the other guy starts. "Anything you need me to do?"

"Just don't get in my way, Sparrow," Hamill orders. "Bring it, ice girl."

_(He seems awfully confident. Does he have an ability advantage over my ice?)_

Isolde shoots an ice ball in his direction. The man slashes it apart with a card. Isolde shoots some more ice balls. The man uses both hands and two cards to cut them apart. Both cards are Jokers.

"Is that really it?" the man in the suit asks. "Here you are making a joke out of our gang, I thought you'd be tougher."

Isolde gathers larger mist, creating a bigger ball of ice that flies forward. The ice ball is smashed by a large fist before it could reach the man in the suit.

"Can we just get this over with?" the extremely large man asked.

(I-is that the other guy? How'd he get so jacked?)

"Please don't have super strength, I hate super strength."

The now humungous man charges forward. Isolde breathes hard and stands still, half of her right arm is covered in a think armor of ice as the big man winds up.

(Isolde! What are you doing?)

"Just keep an eye on the other one Lilian."

The big man swings his fist. Isolde ducks low enough to have the giant hand fly right over her. The back end of her ice arm shoots out jets of mist as the ice fist rams into his stomach so hard that his feet lifted off the ground for a moment.

The big man felt the impact, hard. His face frozen in surprise while he steps back. Isolde sends another jet boosted ice fist into his face. The big man's body crashes into the ground, unconscious, and shrinking.

"Well, that was easy, where's-" Isolde's shoulder shoots out an icicle that catches the other man's arm coming in from the side. "There you are. Looks like I was right, you have to hold the cards to make them cut."

"Rgh!" The man in the suit swings his other arm, aiming for Isolde's face.

Another icicle shoots out from her shoulder and catches his attacking arm. Isolde breathes into his cards, freezes them and shatters them with a flick of her fingers. She grabs one of his arms and faces him while ice forms a helmet on her head, specifically her forehead. Isolde head butts him hard enough to break the ice. The man stumbles backwards and crashes onto the floor, unconscious.

"These guys must be the gang leaders, or at least two of them."

(We should make sure they can't move.)

"My thoughts exactly," Isolde makes thick ice cages around them. "Let's go."

XXX

* * *

Isolde walks into another floor and the next room. A young woman waited for her. She was writing down something on a book.

"I'm surprised you made it past Sparrow and Hamill," the woman greeted. "I thought for sure that their powers would give them a strong advantage."

"Their powers did have an advantage, they themselves didn't."

"And now you stand before me, Marian Tuyet."

"Marie Antoinette?"

"Not Marie, Marian. Marian and Tuyet."

"I'm beginning to sense a stupid pattern here."

"No matter," the girl closed her book.

Isolde hears something above her, the roof had broken apart and is falling down on her. Isolde jumps forward, hitting the floor.

"Let the final act, begin!" The girl opened her book again, wrote something down, then closed it.

Isolde was just getting up as the floor around her crumbled. Isolde fell through the floor to the story below. The woman wrote something down quickly once again and closed the book. This time piece of roof above the hole in the floor caves in and falls through.

"Annnd cut! That was perfect! We'll need to get someone to clean up the mess but I'm sure-"

A massive icicle bursts through from the floor right next to the hole.

"What the hell-?"

Another large icicle breaks through right next to it, closer to the woman. Then another, then another. The girl turns around to leave.

"Hi!" Isolde greeted.

"Ahhh! H-how did you?!"

"Windows," Isolde punched her with an ice covered fist, knocking her out in one hit. "Thanks for the help Lilian, those giant icicle bombs of yours really worked."

(Just because I'm not as creative or as strong as you doesn't mean I can't come up with some fun things on my own.)

Isolde picks up the woman's book and looks through it.

_The roof at the other end of the room will come crashing down._

_The floor at far center of the room will collapse._

_The roof above the hole in the floor will come crashing down._

"I was right, she's a drama queen. I wonder what power the king will have?"

(What are you talking about?)

"They have a guy dressed in purple named Hamill, using joker cards. Another guy named Sparrow that gets jacked up. And now this drama queen."

(You think this is a coincidence?)

"If it is, it's a very stupid one."

XXX

* * *

"Hold it right there," the leader of the gang held up a shotgun to a door. "I don't know what the Mental Out sent you to retrieve, but I have a hostage in this room."

Isolde shrugged loosely, "I don't know what she wants either. But as soon as I take you down, we'll both be happy." Isolde steps forward.

The man taps the door with the shotgun. "I have a hostage here."

"You're bluffing," Isolde pulls off a sadistic smile as she continues walking forward. "Even if you do have someone there, there's nothing between us. For the leader of this gang, you're quite underwhelming."

"What can you expect from a hacker? My expertise is hacking and planning, I leave the field work to the grunts."

"Hacking... Hack... King..." Isolde face palms. "Uuugh."

"What?"

"It's nothing," Isolde continues forward.

"Tell me, just how did you get past my radar?"

"Radar?"

"A long range radar I made to detect any Espers using their powers in the area. I saw it work for Hamill, Sparrow and Marian. But you were never detected at all. What did you do to avoid my radar?"

"I dunno?" Isolde shrugs. "Magic?"

"That's not a helpful answer."

"You know for a planner, you suck at panning your escape. You could've gotten away by now while I was working my way up here."

"I'm warning you!" he taps the door again with his shotgun. "This death will be on your hands!"

"You've been watching too many movies," Isolde smiles creepily as she gets closer.

The man's finger nervously twitches as it squeezes slowly. Isolde doesn't stop walking. The trigger is pulled, the bullets fly through the door, the gun is dropped.

The man dashes for the nearest window. It's frozen solid with ice. The man turn back and is hit with a flying ice fist, knocking him out.

"And that's that," Isolde comments as she freezes his body to the ground.

(You're really starting to enjoy using those mist jets. I mean, an ice rocket punch? And a couple floors down you used a rocket powered ice wolf missile.)

"I still want to experiment with it to see what I can do with this."

She walks over to the shot up door and opens it. Inside the room was an extremely thick wall of ice, and in the ice were the shotgun bullets.

XXX

* * *

"_Kamijou!" Isolde whispers through the window. "Are you alright?"_

"_Who... who's there?" The young man talks weakly from the chair he was tied up to._

"_Hang on," Isolde freezes the window, breaks it off the frame, lays it down gently and walks into the room. She rushes over to the young man and tries to cut him free with an ice blade. "Tch, ice sucks for cutting."_

_(Then why do you keep using ice swords?)_

"_S-Sterling? What are you doing here?"_

"_There," Isolde breaks through the ropes. "How are you holding up?"_

_Touma's body leans forward. "I'm fine. Mostly. I just haven't eaten in the past few days."_

_"Sorry, I didn't bring anything with me." Isolde walks to the window and looks down. "There's nothing we can use to climb down here. And the fire escape is on another side."_

"_Sterling, what's going on here?"_

"_I'm working with the Mental Out to get you out of here."_

"_Shokuhou? Why am I even held up in here?"_

"_You don't know?"_

"_They never told me. You'd think villains like these would be more talkative."_

"_Hmm... I don't think I'm the right person to tell you. We'd better wait for Miss Shokuhou to get here."_

"_She's coming here?"_

"_Yeah, she'll deal with these guys, I just have to get you out. Looks like I might have to make a ladder, or a slide."_

"_You can't."_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_My right hand, it'll destroy whatever you make as soon as I touch it."_

"_You can't turn it off?"_

"_Sorry..."_

"_So you're stuck here." Isolde enters deep thought on what to do. "Well, looks like I'll have to go through them."_

"_What? You can't fight them by yourself!"_

"_As if you're in any condition to say that. Hang on," Isolde ejects mist and creates a very thick wall of mist, that freezes into ice. "Don't touch that. I'll be right back." Isolde jumps out the window._

"_H-hey!" Touma tries to go after her, but stops at the window. "Was that really Sterling? She was acting weird."_

XXX

* * *

The ice wall shatters completely with a touch of the Imagine Breaker. Touma smiles at Isolde, Isolde just gives back a smirk.

"Shokuhou, I've taken care of the gang and Kamijou is safe."

"Already? That was fast. I've almost made it to the building, meet me outside."

"Let's go," Isolde tells Touma.

"Wait a sec," Touma stops her. "You're the... other Sterling, right?"

Isolde remains quiet for a moment, "Yeah, I am. That's all you need to know right now."

Isolde closes her eyes.

"Huh? What? Isolde!" Lilian's eyes open in surprise.

(I know you've been wanting to talk to him.)

"You could've warned me!"

(Shokuhou will be here soon better get moving.)

"Sterling?" Touma looks at her strangely.

"H-hi...!" Lilian nervously greets Touma. "A-are you feeling okay?"

"I'm really, really hungry."

"W-we'll get you some food once we get out of here," Lilian continues to walk.

Touma stops over the gang leader's body and pulls out a cell phone. "This belongs to me."

...

"Wow, you sure did a number on these guys," Touma sees the carnage, one floor after another.

"I-it wasn't me, it was Isolde! S-she better at making ice constructs as well as fighting. I'd rather not fight if I can help it."

...

The two of them left the building.

"Hey, Sterling. Are you okay? You've been kind of quiet."

"Huh? O-of course I'm okay! Y-you should be more worried about yourself, you've been held captive for days!"

"And I still don't know why."

"Neither do I, Isolde and Miss Shokuhou didn't tell me."

"Then I guess I'll have to wait," Touma scratches his head. "Has anything happened to Academy City?"

"H-huh? What do you mean by that?"

"Has there been anything strange happening in Academy City? Like, did some outsider come in and do something?"

"N-not that I know of. There has been a string of robberies by some Magneto."

"Magneto?"

"Some crazy Esper dressed up as a comic book character. He's been stealing stuff from a bunch of stores the past few days. But other than that, nothing."

"Magneto... what's his power?"

"Magnetism, and he's very good. Anti-Skill and Judgment just couldn't catch him."

"Magnetism? How's Misaka?"

"She says she's been busy the last few days, she looked really tired though, most likely helping Judgment catch the Magneto."

"I wonder if this Magneto is related to my capture."

"D-don't be ridiculous, I'm sure it's just a coincidence."

"There you are," a man in a black suit surprised them. "Miss Shokuhou's waiting for you around the corner.

"S-shall we go?" Lilian smiles at Touma.

They turn the corner to see men in black rounding up the gang members. Among them was a blonde Tokiwadai student.

"W-what is this?" Lilian looks at all the agent looking men and vehicles. "Your own private security?"

"More or less," Misaki answers devilishly. "The other Level 5s don't know how to abuse their rank like I do."

"Y-you're scaring me Miss Shokuhou," Lilian nervously laughs.

"Oh, here," Misaki throws something to Lilian.

Lilian catches it and checks it out. It was a star and moon pendant. "This is... Rutile's!"

"That's right, the rest of the stolen goods will be returned so don't worry about them. You should give that to your friend yourself though."

"T-thank you! Thank you so much! Miss Rutile will be soo happy!"

"Think if it as my personal 'Welcome to Tokiwadai' gift to her."

"Shokuhou..." Touma mumbled.

"It's nice to see that you're alright, Kamijou. I was getting worried."

"I'm fine... just hungry."

"Oh? I didn't bring anything with me but we can stop by a restaurant later, my treat."

"Really? Alright! My luck is starting to change!" Touma is suddenly full of energy, Lilian just giggles.

"I just need to figure out what to do with these guys," Misaki ponders. "How am I going to get them to take the blame for the Magneto?"

(Lilian, let me talk.)

Lilian closes her eyes, Isolde opens hers.

"Use the girl, Marian Tuyet." Isolde suggests.

"Marie Antoinette?" Touma repeats.

"It's... complicated," Isolde responds.

"Alright," Misaki smiles mischievously. "Enlighten me."

"Her ability seems to be that whatever she writes down on her book, it happens. And because the Magneto is a full body costume with head covering helmet, it's the perfect way for them to take the fall."

"Smart," Misaki smiles. "I like the way you think Isolde, you and I would make good friends."

"I'd rather we weren't."

"Tell me," Touma interrupts. "Who is this Magneto? It sounds like you both know."

"I think you have a pretty good idea," Isolde responds. "From what I can get off of your reactions when Lilian was talking to you."

(Seriously? Even Kamijou's figured it out? Someone fill me in here!)

"So because of me-"

*SLAP*

Misaki had hit Touma as hard as she could, she waved her hand in pain, "Ooowww! I knew you were hard headed but- oohhh... jeez that hurt."

"You think that hurt?" Touma screamed. "What about my face? What was that for anyway?"

"You idiot!" Misaki regained her composure. "How would _SHE_ feel if she saw you like that?"

Touma paused...

"You're not the one that went through the most despair here. Imagine how she might've felt for the past few days."

A bright flash catches all their attention. It came from a concentration of dark clouds some distance away.

"Where did those clouds come from?" Misaki asks out loud. "The forecast didn't call for thunderclouds."

"The forecast's been wrong before," Isolde shrugs.

"That... that's Misaka!" Touma yells out.

"Misaka? Are you sure?" Misaki turns to Touma, with an intense look.

"I'd know that lightning anywhere."

"Try calling her!"

Touma and Isolde both try to call Mikoto's number.

"No signal," Touma tells them.

"Same here," Isolde informs.

"She must've caused a city wide blackout," Touma suggests.

"I'm going over there!" Isolde runs forward.

"Wait!" Touma tries to chase after her but Isolde had already sprouted her icicle wings and jetted off.

"Kamijou!" Misaki calls him, she's standing right next to a car. "Get inside."

_(What the hell is going on?)_ Isolde thinks to herself as lighting flashes within the cloud, as if it's preparing to strike again.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author: **About Rutile mimicking Mikoto's Railgun. She used gravity to match Mikoto's projectile speed, which after looking into it long after I wrote the chapter... comes to be at 104.1 times Earth's gravity O_O... gravity is more incredibly broken than I thought, I probably should've classified her as a level 4.

This was a fun chapter to write. Quite a bit of references too. A type of Royal Flush Gang (Hamill as Joker, Sparrow as Jack (get it?) with Bane-ish powers and Marian the drama queen (with a full name that references a certain queen). The king was just... there.) A bit of Batman Begins on one of the floor encounters too. Quite fitting with Touma being the hero Academy City doesn't deserve, but the one it needs.


End file.
